I’ve been to many cafes that have resembled loungerooms in some way: Dirty Red’s bustling urban-chic terrace, Shots’ strangely over-personal little quirks, the Garden Lounge’s “hoarder” vibe, but Cocoa & Coffee is the most like home I’ve ever felt in a cafe. Apart from the counter in the front room, it’s a very normal-looking, rambling inner west terrace, cluttered with […]
Cocoa & Coffee, Annandale
Pizza Piatsa, Erskineville
Pizza Piatsa is the oddly conjoined twin of the Sip Inn on Erskineville Rd. It’s essentially a takeaway pizza place with a coffee machine right next to Sip Inn’s front door, so I wasn’t exactly expecting a top-notch cafe experience. Accordingly, the coffee was a little bit worse than “meh”, so the banana bread really caught me off guard. What […]
Son of a Baker, Bondi Westfield
Son of a Baker isn’t really a cafe, but a cute little floating kiosk just outside the Woolworths. It’s a very convenient place to stop if you’ve just done your grocery shop and want to grab some real bakery items to take home. The coffee wasn’t bad, with a decent enough flavour, and the banana bread also tasted good but […]
Grumpy Donuts, Camperdown
If you’re looking for some seriously sweet comfort food, look no further than Grumpy Donuts, a hole-in-the-wall that’s oozing with custard and cool. Their donuts are both thicc and phat, with an incredible range of special flavours on cycle and there’s always something new and experimental to keep things interesting. The Grumpy crew take their coffee seriously too, thanks to […]
Ella & Beau, Forest Lodge
I’ve always liked Ella & Beau. They were the closest cafe to my old work and although their coffee wasn’t the best, they had good made-to-order breakfast rolls and a variety of mushroom dishes, so I ended up going there pretty frequently (although I would walk the extra distance to The Annex if I wanted something better). True to form, […]
Cafe Training
My toddler surprised me today as he was riding his little bike around Camperdown Park. He pointed over to Store Espresso and said “I wanna get nana bread”. How could I say no? He’s actually getting to be a pretty good judge. While there are a lot of different variables at play, he’ll always get stuck into a really good […]
In The Annex, Forest Lodge
Having been a regular at The Annex for about 6 years now, I’ve seen first hand how this cafe has really grown into itself. Unlike all those ex-hipster cafes that get bought out and turned profitable, with a little Asian fusion thrown in where it doesn’t quite fit, In the Annex serves its fusion well-executed and beautifully presented with legitimately […]
Two Fives, Rosebery
Driving past Two Fives, the first thing I noticed was their cable-reel tables out front. About 10 years ago, when the industrial chic thing was really trending, I had a brief hands-on hobby rescuing these from demo sites and cleaning them up for exactly this purpose. It wasn’t particularly profitable, but at least I contributed to making a few cafes […]
Sweet Lu, Newtown
Sweet Lu is a Taiwanese dessert cafe, so I wasn’t really expecting a classic flat white and banana bread. The service was excellent, and given that my friendly barista this morning was very, very not Taiwanese, she knew a lot about their products, and was an excellent barista to boot. She took pride in recommending the Reuben croissant and she […]
Brickfields, Chippendale
It just doesn’t get better than this. The Brickfields Bakery has limited, highly-prized seating space, but it still serves a gorgeous array of baked goods alongside a beautiful dine-in menu. Their coffee is to die for, but most importantly, the Brickfields banana bread is my all-time favourite. It’s packed with real bananas for that fresh, authentic flavour, and has a […]